Since we donÂ´t have a rant thread on this forum that i am aware of, and no the search function is NOT my friend, i will rant away here!

Effing paintersmurf from Hades!!!

Ok, from the start...We bought this house and he was contracted to do the job after having been recommended by 2 reliable (i have since reevaluated these people) separate sources.

Fine, his painter didnÂ´t seem all that great even from the start. Was more taking coffeebreaks and smoking than anything else.
They ended up being in our place more than twice as long as they were supposed to and a lot of work had to be rectified. Plus that the painter was fired as it turned out that he was an alcoholic...

Fine. I liked the main dude Jim and wanted to give him a chance, so i figured that he would get another shot. But i stated that he and only he was to do the job since i donÂ´t want people i donÂ´t know and donÂ´t trust plodding around in here.

So i handed over the keys this fall so that he could enter and do some work while we were away since i donÂ´t imagine oilpaint fumes to be great for baby brains.
We come back and there are, amongst other things, weird stains on carpets, a curtain halftorn off, paintstains on ceramic floor plus most of the things i had asked to be done were not. ARGH!

Well, after he had tried to blame everyone else in the world he finally agreed that this was his fault, and no he had not been the one that had even been in the house. GREAT you MORON!

So he was supposed to have come here last week. Called the very morning of sounding like Eeor and didnÂ´t show. Which was also annoying because otherwise i would have gine with my husband to Zurich for some important concerts instead of sitting all alone and preggers in a gloomy Glasgow.

So we rescheduled for today and he was to call me yesterday (didnÂ´t), and he was late this morning so after an hour i called him myself. He is still sounding like "woe is me" and "the world is mean" and "pity me" and "nothing is ever my fault"...Then proceeds by saying sorry for not calling yesterday, and i canÂ´t make it today but maybe later on this week...And ends that sentence with "Ok, Ã…sa?". At which point i say, in a calm nice tone of voice, "No Jim, it is not ok. To which he replies "Ok, bye Ã…sa" and effing hangs up on me!!!!!!

What a complete fuckup!!! I am so POÂ´d right now it is unbeliviable. Especially since this is the babyroom and it is not like we have forever to wait for it to be finished.

I have now called some other tradespeople and will see what quotes they come back with.

I so sorry you are having so much trouble. It is so hard to find anybody who has any work ethic anymore. Hopefully you can find somebody to do it. I wish I was close. I love to decorate and paint. Good Luck

have you already paid him? If not, don't. We are currently sueing a contractor who took $500 of our money and never showed. Of course, the law here allows us to sue him for the money he basically stole and the money that I paid someone else to do it over his original quote so we get to sue for $900! YAY!

In general, contractors suck, but when you find a good one keep them!!!

Michelle

Inside me is a thin woman trying to get out. I usually shut the bitch up with a martini.

On January 21 2008, mnp13 wrote:have you already paid him? If not, don't. We are currently sueing a contractor who took $500 of our money and never showed. Of course, the law here allows us to sue him for the money he basically stole and the money that I paid someone else to do it over his original quote so we get to sue for $900! YAY!

In general, contractors suck, but when you find a good one keep them!!!

Well, depends on how you see it...When we saw eachother face to face the last time he asked for Â£400 for the things he had done (or the other idiot had badly done i should say). And that leaves Â£100 that i still supposedly owe him...Yeah right.

So i guess at the end of the day we will loose money on him stiffing us, but i guess one lives and one learns I just want the room done now!

Yeah, i have a very good bathroom/plumber guy. The only problem it seems is when they are good it is absolutely impossible to get ahold instead...

Hhmm, i really like my roofer though! Too bad i need him so much though

The joiner we had vanished (still owe him Â£160 which i have tried to pay to no avail). The heating engineer went AWOL (have signed up with Scottish Gas instead). The electrician is MIA (owe him Â£50 that i have left a few messages about too).

So i long for the day when there is almost no need for these people to come around!!!!

I go to court on the 7th at 5:00. I have a pile of paperwork to back up my side of the story, and if (read: when) he doesn't show up I can sopena (sp?) his cell phone bill from Verizon and get all his information from them. It's doubtful I'll ever see a penny, but it will go on his credit report, so I'll at least get that satisfaction.

Michelle

Inside me is a thin woman trying to get out. I usually shut the bitch up with a martini.

I love my mother, but she is the most unorganized ass backward person in the world. For weeks before the move I kept reminding her to get EVERYTHING packed and ready to go so we could move it all in one shot when we had the car trailer, and we wouldnt have to worry about it.

I told her that I didnt want it to be like the last 5 times we have moved and ended up dragging it out for a week making little trips back and forth, etc...

So, the night before the move she twists the crap out of her ankle. It's still messed up.

I have NO problem moving all of her stuff, but the next day, I get to her house and NOTHING is packed. She has maybe 6 boxes.

There was still stuff all over her house, clothes she hasnt worn in a million years, stuff she thinks she'll do something with and never does, random things she buys, etc... It's not as horrible as most pack rats, but it still drives me nuts.

I was kind of like that when I was younger, and now I HATE clutter. I go through all of my clothes every couple of months and chuck anything I don't wear. I go through my desk every few weeks and chuck anything I don't want. I hate having crap that you are never going to use. It is SO refreshing getting rid of stuff that you will never use. Sometimes it is hard, but once you do it, it feels great!

She does this in EVERY house we have lived at. She moves boxes of crap that she THINKS she will go through, never has the time, and it ends up sitting there until the next move.

I finally called her out on it and she is going through her stuff and throwing stuff out (with my help) but why can't she do it BEFORE we move it all to a new house??????

I just hate that not only did I have to move TWO houses by myself, but I made a point to tell her to get everything ready, and I was SO organized and efficient with my stuff. We have been in the new house over a week, and are just finishing up moving her stuff.

Why can't everybody just do things my way and get over themselves? My way is SOOOO much better, and makes SO much more sense, and cuts out SOOOO much of the bull-dookey. Maybe I am just more evolved (ie: better) than everybody else.

OK Here goes...it was about 19 degrees last night, which, in and of itself, isn't so bad, but add to that, the wind blowing about 40mph with gusts to 50 or so, and it gets really cold, really quick.
Woke up this AM to...TA DA...frozen pipes.
Now, we still rent - and we're theortically buying this place but we are NOT, not for the price he's asking, and terms. So we put him off and are still renting but he set up a well and pump and water...storage tank??? Is that the word? He placed it on our back porch which he then sort of built around the device.
However, I swear, he got the houseplans from...dare I say...backwoods Kentucky or something, because it's really shoddy. Shoddy doesn't even begin to describe this atrocity.
See, our landlord is a packrat and when he needs building materials he goes and tears some trash apart that he has had lying around and uses that. So it's just scrap lumber thrown together.
Nothing FITS, it's not squared and the freaking door he put there is filthy, has a window for some Godforsaken reason, that's filthy, and no door knob AT ALL.
So it's colder than sin out there too. Which is why the water froze.
So I call him up - Jeff's at work until 7pm tonight, and, well, the dogs are thirsty!! Plus I'd like a shower today...
And he finally hauls his ass down here, just to yell "KEEP THIS DOOR CLOSED!"
Um - it WAS closed!!! I told him, Tyler had just taken the trash out through it, and that was why it was ajar when he pulled up, I mean, we could have shut the door on him, but that'd be rude!?
What a joke. I mean - even if the door was shut, and it was, wind comes in, you can see daylight around the edges of this "porch".
I'm furious that he yelled at me for leaving the door with no handle, just a hole, open.
I can't wait for the weather to warm up - which will take ALL week.
Landlord suggested placing a SPACE HEATER out there!! Um, yeah that's a plan - then we can have a $200 electric bill on top of the regular $100-150 we pay, and that's not including our propane which is how we heat this house.
Here's a pic of our "porch" so you can see what I am talking about.
My dad's a contractor and about croaked when he saw this mess...

Note the grey house paint and the tan "porch" paint. Oh, and green trim. The roof was in one piece and the "building block" and inspiration for our porch...he got the roof off a trailer in town that was being dismantled. Waste not, want not, is his motto...

And the door. The hole is where the knob is supposed to go. And the space where the nails are, beyond that is the outdoors. WTF? I can't even close the door now.

Here's the electrical fixings and where the water comes up to the holding tank.
Note the frozen...YEP...water...standing at the bottom there???

He's so *cough* thrifty that he used USED insulation. Isn't that nice?
Anyway -next time you get down, think about our house and porch. That oughta cheer you up